Cienfuegos

REBEL LEADER KILLED? The army is investigating soldiers' reports they killed guerrilla Ferman Cienfuegos, leader of one of the five Marxist-led armies fighting to topple the U.S.-backed government. The death of Cienfuegos, 41, would be the first time in the 8-year-old civil war that a rebel leader has been killed in fighting. Army spokesmen said documents captured during a clash last week at a hamlet called El Pepeto might positively identify the body, which was later burned, as Cienfuegos.

A tall-ship sailing company from Monaco is launching cruises from southern Cuba in 2014. Star Clippers will sail its 170-passenger Star Flyer on two repositioning cruises ending or starting in Cienfuegos; one six-night cruise round-trip from Cienfuegos; and five seven-night round-trip sailings from Cienfuegos -- all in February and March of 2014, USA Today reported. "Star Clippers is headquartered in Europe and caters to an international clientele," Star Clippers owner Mikael Krafft said in a statement.

HAVANA - Cuba on Saturday announced the replacement of its ministers for tourism and foreign investment - key posts in the bid to bring capital into the communist-run island - without any official explanation for the change. A three-paragraph statement in the ruling Communist Party's daily Granma said Tourism Minister Osmany Cienfuegos, brother of deceased revolutionary hero Camilo Cienfuegos, would be assigned ``other responsibilities.'' Foreign Investment Minister Ibrahim Ferradaz, who has been central to Cuba's opening to foreign investment, was moved to the tourism post.

HAVANA -- Russian oil companies could soon begin searching for oil in deep Gulf of Mexico waters off Cuba, a top diplomat said just days before Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visits the island. Russian oil companies have "concrete projects" for drilling in Cuba's part of the gulf, Mijail Kamynin, Russia's ambassador to Cuba, told the state-run business magazine Opciones. Kamynin also said Russian companies would like to help build storage tanks for crude oil and to modernize Cuban pipelines, as well as play a role in Venezuelan efforts to refurbish a Soviet-era refinery in the port city of Cienfuegos.

PIPELINE PROJECT. Soviet workers will help build an oil pipeline in Cuba. The official newspaper Granma said Soviet official Vladimir Chirskov signed an agreement with Marcos Portal, Cuba's minister of basic industry. The pipeline will run from a port for supertankers in Matanzas on the northern coast to an oil refinery in Cienfuegos, 120 miles away on the southern coast.

HAVANA -- Two buses collided in the central Cuban province of Cienfuegos, killing three Belgian tourists and two Cubans, and injuring 11 others, including three Dutch visitors, diplomats and authorities said Thursday. The accident occurred Wednesday on a road near the small town of Real Campina, a report in the state-run newspaper Granma said.

The United States said Thursday it wants to send an expert to inspect a Soviet-made nuclear power plant under construction in Cuba. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said a U.S. expert visited the Cienfuegos plant in October 1989 when it was in the early stages of construction and that the United States hopes to arrange more such visits. Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., said he was concerned by reports that the Cuban reactors might not be operated safely when they begin producing power in 1993.

A tall-ship sailing company from Monaco is launching cruises from southern Cuba in 2014. Star Clippers will sail its 170-passenger Star Flyer on two repositioning cruises ending or starting in Cienfuegos; one six-night cruise round-trip from Cienfuegos; and five seven-night round-trip sailings from Cienfuegos -- all in February and March of 2014, USA Today reported. "Star Clippers is headquartered in Europe and caters to an international clientele," Star Clippers owner Mikael Krafft said in a statement.

Cuba may seek International Atomic Energy Agency help to assure safe operation of its nearly completed nuclear power complex, the State Department said Friday. Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Cuba is discussing with the IAEA the possibility of accepting an advisory mission to the Cienfuegos site, which has raised safety concerns among officials in Washington and in Florida. The IAEA, if a mission is arranged, could provide technical advise on plant construction ''to assure plant safety, including quality assurance, civil and engineering work, and preparation for startup and operations,'' Boucher said.

HAVANA -- Russian oil companies could soon begin searching for oil in deep Gulf of Mexico waters off Cuba, a top diplomat said just days before Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visits the island. Russian oil companies have "concrete projects" for drilling in Cuba's part of the gulf, Mijail Kamynin, Russia's ambassador to Cuba, told the state-run business magazine Opciones. Kamynin also said Russian companies would like to help build storage tanks for crude oil and to modernize Cuban pipelines, as well as play a role in Venezuelan efforts to refurbish a Soviet-era refinery in the port city of Cienfuegos.

HAVANA -- Greeted by salsa music and gyrating dancers, a young Spanish tour company on Saturday launched a new cruise-ship service in the western Caribbean. Alfonso Lopez, general director of Pullmantur Cruises, arrived aboard the Vacation Dream ship Saturday afternoon with about 500 mostly Spanish passengers from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Lopez said the ship will call Havana its home port and once a week will visit Cozumel, Mexico; Montego Bay, Jamaica; and several stops in Cuba, including the central coastal city of Cienfuegos and the tiny Isla de Juventud, or Isle of Youth.

HAVANA -- Two buses collided in the central Cuban province of Cienfuegos, killing three Belgian tourists and two Cubans, and injuring 11 others, including three Dutch visitors, diplomats and authorities said Thursday. The accident occurred Wednesday on a road near the small town of Real Campina, a report in the state-run newspaper Granma said.

HAVANA - Cuba on Saturday announced the replacement of its ministers for tourism and foreign investment - key posts in the bid to bring capital into the communist-run island - without any official explanation for the change. A three-paragraph statement in the ruling Communist Party's daily Granma said Tourism Minister Osmany Cienfuegos, brother of deceased revolutionary hero Camilo Cienfuegos, would be assigned ``other responsibilities.'' Foreign Investment Minister Ibrahim Ferradaz, who has been central to Cuba's opening to foreign investment, was moved to the tourism post.

Exploring the wild southern coast of Cuba is like time-traveling to our own Florida Keys of the 16th century.The mangrove-rimmed islands scattered at the edge of the gulfs of Batabano and Guacanayabo are covered with stunted, thatched palms and sea purslane and dotted with the burrows of land iguanas. They seem as though they could be as feral as they were when the Spanish first stumbled over them a half-millennia ago.Those wild ``cayos'' - Spanish for ``little islands'' - and others scattered off the northern and southern coasts of Cuba constitute the largest collection of undeveloped islands in the wider Caribbean.

A week of heavy rains has damaged more than 1,500 houses and forced 4,500 people to flee their homes in eastern and central Cuba, according to Cuba's official news agency. Nearly 100 houses were destroyed by the rains pounding Santiago, Holguin, Camaguey, Ciego de Avila and Cienfuegos provinces. The rains also forced the closure of Antonio Maceo International Airport in Santiago, and the partial closure of the area's main power generation plant, Prensa Latina reported.

More than 30 tons of rice, beans and powdered milk destined for Cuban hurricane victims remains in warehouses waiting for a government ruling on its distribution. Roman Catholic relief agencies that sent the food want to distribute it in the area of Cienfuegos on Cuba's south coast, where Hurricane Lili did some of its heaviest damage two weeks ago. The government wants to use the shipments as general aid for the poor. In addition, it has insisted on testing each of 105 different types of milk in the shipment.

A week of heavy rains has damaged more than 1,500 houses and forced 4,500 people to flee their homes in eastern and central Cuba, according to Cuba's official news agency. Nearly 100 houses were destroyed by the rains pounding Santiago, Holguin, Camaguey, Ciego de Avila and Cienfuegos provinces. The rains also forced the closure of Antonio Maceo International Airport in Santiago, and the partial closure of the area's main power generation plant, Prensa Latina reported.

More than 30 tons of rice, beans and powdered milk destined for Cuban hurricane victims remains in warehouses waiting for a government ruling on its distribution. Roman Catholic relief agencies that sent the food want to distribute it in the area of Cienfuegos on Cuba's south coast, where Hurricane Lili did some of its heaviest damage two weeks ago. The government wants to use the shipments as general aid for the poor. In addition, it has insisted on testing each of 105 different types of milk in the shipment.

A delegation of former U.S. generals and admirals will inspect a controversial nuclear power project in Cuba next month, news reports said Sunday.In a dispatch from the Cuban capital of Havana, Mexico's official Notimex news agency said 10 retired U.S. officers will visit Cuba Feb. 5-10. The group will include experts in nuclear energy.The presence of high-ranking retired American military officials would be extraordinary in Cuba, one of the last remaining battlegrounds of the Cold War.It also was expected to draw renewed attention to the Juragua nuclear power plant, 180 miles from Key West, near the city of Cienfuegos on the central stretch of Cuba's southern coast.

Cuban dissident Sebastian Arcos Bergnes was freed from prison Wednesday, one of six political prisoners Cuban authorities have decided to release after a request by a French human rights group. Arcos, who arrived at his Havana home in the evening after being freed in the central city of Cienfuegos, told foreign reporters his release was unconditional. Arcos, 64, thanked the French government and said he had hopes that his release and that of the other five signaled a political opening.